99-year-old artist’s dream takes shape at last
KOTA KINABALU: A nonagenarian artist’s dream is coming true with the launch of a Living Arts Centre on the banks of the Tamparuli river some 40km from here.
Tina Rimmer, who has produced more than 1,000 sketches and paintings since arriving in Sabah from England in 1949, always had an affinity for the rustic town of Tamparuli, where she lived for decades.
Tamparuli-born Paulus Gani remembers how Rimmer would go to the weekly tamu (market).
“She would sit for hours, observing and painting the people there,” he said.
When he came to know of the 99-year-old’s dream of setting up a centre to encourage Sabahans to develop their artistic talents, Paulus decided to do something about it.
Five years ago, Paulus and some friends set up the Tamparuli Living Arts and Cultural Heritage Association to help turn Rimmer’s dream into a reality.
On Aug 2, the association along with the State Museum and Sabah Tourism Board held a soft launch for the centre on a four-acre land belonging to Rimmer, which she kept in trust.
Artworks from local artists and sculptors were displayed.
However, Rimmer herself could not make it to the event due to unforeseen circumstances.
Sabah Tourism Board chairman Datuk Joniston Bangkuai, who officiated the event, said the centre not only helped keep arts alive, it also could be a tourist spot.
“Therefore, the setting up of this art centre is apt and now we have another interesting place to visit when in Tamparuli,” he added.
Born Christina Lewin in Dover, England, in 1917, Rimmer arrived in Jesselton (now Kota Kinabalu) in September 1949 to serve as the first woman education officer appointed by the British colonial government.
To date, she has produced over 900 paintings. Most of Rimmer’s drawings are of people.
She has also made sketches of over 500 patients at the Palliative Care Centre in Kota Kinabalu over the years.